Gas turbine engines may be used to power aircraft and may include a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. The fan section is positioned at the front, or “inlet” section of the engine, and includes a fan that induces air from the surrounding environment into the engine. The fan section accelerates a fraction of the air toward the compressor section. The remaining fraction of air is accelerated into and through a bypass plenum, and out the exhaust section. The compressor section raises the pressure of the air it receives from the fan section to a relatively high level. The compressed air then enters the combustor section, where a ring of fuel nozzles injects a steady stream of fuel into the air. The injected fuel is ignited by a burner, which significantly increases the energy of the compressed air. The high-energy compressed air then flows into and through the turbine section, causing rotationally mounted turbine blades to rotate and generate energy. The air exiting the turbine section is exhausted from the engine via the exhaust section, and the energy remaining in this exhaust air aids the thrust generated by the air flowing through the bypass plenum.
Many gas turbine engines, such as the above-described turbofan gas turbine engine, selectively bleed air from the compressor section for the operation of aircraft systems that may be at least partially pneumatically operated. For example, the bleed air may be diverted to a starter control system that may include pneumatically-operated components, such as valves and/or regulators. At times, the bleed air may contain various particles, dirt, or other contaminants. To prevent or minimize particle buildup in the aircraft system, filters have been used upstream of the pneumatically-operated components. Conventionally, porous filters consisting of wire mesh or sintered powdered metal have been used within a flowpath of the bleed air. However, porous filters have limited life due to pore clogging. Additionally, porous filters may have mesh sizes that are larger than the size of some of the bleed air particles, and thus, may not be as effective as desired in filtering out these particles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an improved system for filtering particles from an airflow. In addition, it is desirable for the system to be capable of being retrofitted into currently existing engines or aircraft. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the inventive subject matter will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the inventive subject matter and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the inventive subject matter.